Bearcats Stay Undefeated, Down AHS 58-21

ALLIANCE — For the third time this season, the Alliance High School football team hosted one of the top five teams in the state.

This time, Scottsbluff (ranked No. 4 by the Omaha World-Herald and No. 3 by the Lincoln Journal Star) came to town, coasting to a 58-21 victory over Alliance during the Bulldog Homecoming week. Alliance moves to 4-4 on the season and remains 11th in the Class B power point standings.

“They shouldn’t have had 58 points and that responsibility falls on me, but we’ll go back to work and get things shored up,” AHS head coach Chris Seebohm said. “I take full responsibility for the loss and we’ll go back and fix it before next week.”

The Bearcats, looking forward to a game of undefeated teams against McCook this coming Friday, had more than enough options offensively to work with Friday.

Running back Chris Busby rushed for 81 yards and a 14-yard touchdown, while returning a kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Sabastian Harsh added 62 yards and two touchdowns rushing, and also added 100 yards and a 59-yard touchdown passing. Jacob Krul added 96 yards rushing, including a 55-yard touchdown run, and Jasiya DeOllos had 35 yards on the ground with a 5-yard touchdown run. Keegan Reifschneider hauled in a 59-yard touchdown pass, as well.

Alliance simply didn’t have an answer for all of Scottsbluff’s weapons.

“Busby looked tremendous and their quarterback is big and fast, and he’s tremendous, too,” Seebohm said. “Reifschneider is a great receiver for them and you can see his speed. They’re very well coached.”

Alliance’s offense was unable to muster much momentum for much of the game. Though the Bulldogs had a couple shots downfield fall incomplete, two Bearcat scores in the first quarter and another three touchdowns and a field goal in the second quarter ensured a Bearcat lead that wasn’t going to be lost.

The Bulldogs found the scoreboard late in the first half after Reece Jensen hauled in a 28-yard touchdown lob pass from Trevor DuBray. Jensen finished with 57 yards receiving in the game.

Scottsbluff, however, responded with Busby returning the ensuing kickoff 91 yards for the touchdown. The Bearcats then tacked on a 35-yard field goal from Caleb Walker in the closing seconds of the first half to take a 37-7 lead heading into the locker room.

“We gave up two scores on special teams, and that’s unfortunate,” Seebohm said. “You don’t want swings like that.”

Alliance scored twice late in the fourth quarter -- one on a 5-yard touchdown run from Logan Leistritz and another on a 30-yard touchdown run down the sideline by Keegan Grant.

“For Logan Leistirtz, I thought he ran really hard so that’s a really positive thing going into the future,” Seebohm said. “Then with Keegan Grant’s long run, it showed they fought hard, so I’m proud of their fight.”

McClain Adamson made his way for 30 yards on two runs late in the game, while DuBray added 87 yards passing. Mason Hiemstra had 23 yards receiving, while Josh Jensen had one catch for five yards. Jayce Bauer added four yards receiving and five yards rushing. Chandler Stinson also had one catch for three yards.

“Thanks to these seniors,” Seebohm said. “These seniors are a special group of young men and they worked extremely hard. They’re a great group of seniors and I’m very proud of them.”

Alliance looks to finish the regular season back above .500 and fight for a playoff spot with a road contest against (3-5) Lexington next Friday. The Minutemen picked up a 35-12 win over Cozad last week.